Guttmacher Report Analyzed: When Tax Dollars Pay for Abortion, You Get More Abortion

A recent report from the Guttmacher Institute, founded as the research arm of Planned Parenthood, shows an overall drop in the number of abortions but an increase among poor women. In fact, the report points out that poor women had 42% of all abortions in 2008. Even more startling is that, by 2008, the abortion rate among this group had reached 52.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

Most reasonable individuals can agree that such statistics among poor women are staggering and disturbing. Disagreement sets in over what exactly is causing the abortion rate among poor woment to rise while the overall rate is falling. The Guttmacher Institute suggests that government’s insufficient “family planning” funding is the primary culprit while pro-life leaders argue that government funding is the problem—not the solution.

As Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D., National Right to Life director of education and research, notes, “The abortion industry likes to argue that high abortion rates are due to insufficient government funding for ‘family planning’ but the record seems at odds with that assertion. As abortion industry giant Planned Parenthood has received hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year, abortions at their facilities have steadily increased at rates that very nearly match their increases in government funding.”

Despite Planned Parenthood’s argument to the contrary, their own statitistics largely support the idea that “when tax dollars pay for abortion, you get more abortion.”